


Nocturne

by inklesspen



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/F, Grimdark, Post SBURB
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-26
Updated: 2012-12-26
Packaged: 2017-11-22 13:05:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/610145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inklesspen/pseuds/inklesspen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Years after exiting SBURB, Rose dreams.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nocturne

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sopnu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sopnu/gifts).



> Thanks to my friend [Huitzil](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Huitzil/profile) for his beta-reading assistance!

In your dreams, they call to you. They are your gods. They have taken possession of you, consumed you utterly, but you left them. The only joy is in releasing yourself to their communion. They are great and noble and they wish only to love you; how can you be so cruel as to remain apart?

Tonight they wear the faces of your friends. They personate John without difficulty, for you can no longer remember much about your former friendleader beyond his goofy, earnest smile, not since the end of the game, but he was always easy enough to deflect. Your brother also provides a simple guise to assume, for all that you can effortlessly pierce his shield of emotionless irony. They know better than to try the trolls; they don’t understand the differences between trollkind and humans, and so those masks are always ineffective. But when they come to you behind the guileless face of Jade Harley, you are most vulnerable.

The dream Jade appears from nowhere and grins, even as you shrink away. She stretches out her hand and cups your cheek, her hands rough and calloused from her adventures. “Rose,” she says, and somehow in the saying she is caressing your name. “Rose, I’ve missed you so. Won’t you come with me? Won’t you love me? I’ve seen your longing for me, when you watch me leave and wait for me to return. I can be yours forever, if only you’ll be mine.” And that is how you know this isn’t really Jade. She never looks back when she leaves you; she lives in the moment, embracing each thing as it comes. You would not dream of changing that, but you do dream of joining her, of running off into the sunset with her, of finding yourself on a remote island with her as the sun comes up again, the taste of her lips upon yours. There would be adventures. There would be the excitement of finding now-shared favorite things, and her strong hands intertwined with yours, her body curled up with yours. There would be everything you’ve wanted for so very long and everything would be perfect.

Only your anger saves you.

The wands find their way into your hands like old friends. The power surges within you, and for all the danger inherent in using the power against those who granted it, you find you have the situation under control. The Pattern of Irresistible Repulsion is a simple enough spell and, when applied to individual organs, wondrously effective. Ichor, not blood, wells from the hole where her heart had been, as the writhing shapes of the horrorterrors emerge from the husk of her body. Once more they call to you, piteously begging for the warm embrace of your psyche. It is all posturing; they would annihilate your intellect in a moment, given leave. You will not give it to them.

The horrorterrors flow and crawl and swarm and fly and jet, in endless forms most terrible and most aberrant. They change from instant to instant, but whether they have grasping tentacles or crushing beaks, your spells rive them apart. It takes only seconds for them to reform, but that’s enough time to back up and strike again and again and again. Your casting is elegant, with no wasted effort, and the spell itself is a wonder of efficiency. If you had a proper complacency with which to discuss arcane working, they would surely agree it should be named in your honor; perhaps Lalonde’s Exquisite Laceration. A tiny smile comes to your lips, but even your pride in your work cannot distract you from the task at hand.

Before long, you have dealt enough damage to earn yourself a small respite. Jade’s body lies mangled on the ground in front of you, but that’s all it is. They thought they could trick you, but you know all their old tricks and they are too alien to invent new ones. You know the power you possess; after all this time you are intimately familiar with it, and you will not be afraid of them again. Even as they gather themselves and resurge, you know beyond any doubt that you are their better.

When at last you’ve driven them off, you turn away from the carnage to regain your composure. Your heart rate slows, approaching normal. And then Jade is there again, hand outstretched. With alacrity you swipe your wand across her neck; after all this practice, the spell is so easy to loose. There is just enough time to see the shock in her eyes before your spell severs her carotid and her blood sprays forth. Her inchoate scream becomes a mere gurgle almost instantly. Yours, on the other hand, suffices to wake you up.

Your limbs flail, nearly knocking you to the ground, but whoever is carrying you has a strong grip and does not fumble. You blink blearily in the dim hallway light. Jade glances down at you with a confident smile as she nudges your bedroom door open with her hip. “I’m sorry; did I wake you?” With a few strides and a carefully applied elbow, she draws aside the bedclothes and gently sets you down. “I didn’t mean to intrude, but I stopped by and found you asleep at your desk again.” You regard each other in the dim light and there’s that Harley grin again, proof against anything the world can throw at her.

Still half-asleep, you reach up and grab her arm as she starts to step away. “Stay with me?” The “please” goes unspoken, but the desperation in your voice is plain. “I had the dream again.” She can’t refuse you like this; she climbs in to lie by your side. You know she won’t sleep; her body clock is stuck on Hellmurder Standard Time, even if she hasn’t been back to the island in months. Once you fall asleep again, you know she’ll be off to Berlin or Jakarta or somewhere, but having her even for these few moments is enough.


End file.
